Sohel Parvez
The prices of broiler chicken have jumped over 51 percent because of short supply as fears over probable bird flu attacks slowed farming last month.
Low returns over chicken last month also prompted farmers to cut farming, leading retail prices to rise as high as Tk 139 a kilogram.
The overall prices of live broiler chicken per kilogram soared to a range of Tk 130-135 from Tk 85-90 in kitchen markets a month ago, according to data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
“We are disturbed by the constant rise in prices. Customers are questioning the rise and cutting consumption in response,” said Mohammad Solaiman of Protein House, owner of the live and frozen broiler chicken outlet, at the Hatirpool kitchen market.
Solaiman, who was selling a kilogram of live broiler chicken at Tk 138, blamed the fall in broiler chicken farming on the prevailing bird flue panic among farmers.
“Worsening confidence in farmers has also affected the sales of our day-old chicks. Prices of a day-old chick came down by two-thirds in December from a month ago,” said Shah Habibul Haque, director of Aftab Bahumukhi Farms Ltd.
The official of Aftab said the company had destroyed over 350,000 day-old chicks due to a massive slump in demand for farming. This was due to farmers’ fears over probable bird-flu attacks.
“The situation was so bad that we sold day-old chicks for as low as Tk 2-4 a piece sometime in December,” said Haque. Aftab was retailing a kilogram of live broiler at Tk 139.
The poultry industry, which shrank due to the shutdown of tens of thousands of farms and job losses after bird flu swept over the sector early last year, is still facing the brunt of the disease.
The bird-flu rampage cost the industry more than Tk 4,200 crore in losses.
In January 2008, the price of a kilogram of live broiler chicken hovered around Tk 75-80, amid the ravage of the disease.
In the last couple of months, the incidence of the disease has been low but panic remains.
Kazi Zeeshan Hasan, director of the country’s biggest poultry breeder Kazi Farms, also felt that most broiler farmers remained silent on apprehension of losses over the disease. “But farmers are slowly regaining confidence.”
Moshiur Rahman, managing director of another hatchery, Paragon Poultry, believed that the low prices of poultry birds last month were the reason behind slowing farming.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
